(Colophon.) “Imprentyd at London in South- | warke by me peter Treueris, dwel- | lynge in the sygne of the wodows | In the yere of our Lorde god M.D. | XXVI the XXVII day of July.”

According to the introduction it was compiled from the works of “many noble doctoures and experte maysters in medecines, as Auicenna, Pandecta, Constantinus, Wilhelmus, Platearius, Rabbi Moyses, Johannes Mesue, Haly, Albertus, Bartholomeus and more other.” But with the exception of the preface the Grete Herball is a translation of the well-known French herbal, Le Grant Herbier. Until about 1886 Le Grant Herbier was supposed to be a translation of the Herbarius zu Teutsch, published at Mainz in 1485, or of the Ortus Sanitatis, printed also at Mainz in 1491.[53] The Herbarius zu Teutsch, which was probably compiled by a Frankfort physician, is a fine herbal beautifully illustrated, and the later Ortus Sanitatis is by some authorities supposed to be a Latin translation of it. To judge from the preface to the German Herbarius it was a labour of love, undertaken by a man who apparently was possessed of ample wealth and leisure; for in his preface he tells us that he “caused this praiseworthy work to be begun by a Master learned in physic,” and then, finding that as many of the herbs did not grow in his native land he could not draw them “with their true colours and form,” he left the work unfinished and journeyed through many lands—Italy, Croatia, Albania, Dalmatia, Greece, Corfu, Candia, Rhodes, Cyprus, the Holy Land, Arabia, Babylonia and Egypt. He was accompanied by “a painter ready of wit and cunning and subtle of hand,” and was thus able to have the herbs “truly drawn.” The book he compiled on his return was long regarded as the original of the French herbal, Le Grant Herbier, but in 1866 Professor Giulio Camus found two fifteenth-century manuscripts in the Biblioteca Estense at Modena, one the Latin work commonly known from the opening words as Circa Instans, and the other a French translation of the same manuscript. It was always supposed by medical historians that the Circa Instans was written by Matthaeus Platearius of Salerno in the twelfth century, but in Professor Camus’s memoir, L’Opéra Saleritana “Circa Instans” ed il testo primitivo del “Grand Herbier in Francoys” secundo duo codici del secolo XV conservati nella Regia Biblioteca Estense, there are reproduced the French verses in which occurs the line, “Il a esté escript Millccc cinquante et huit,” and Mr. H. M. Barlow[54] supports the deduction that Circa Instans was not written by a Salernitan physician, but by a writer described in the verses as “Bartholomaeus minid’ senis” in 1458. Le Grant Herbier, of which the English Grete Herball is a translation, is a version of the French manuscript translation of Circa Instans, and therefore, as Circa Instans is older than either the Herbarius zu Teutsch or the Latin Ortus Sanitatis, it would seem that it is the real original of our Grete Herball. The preface to the Grete Herball, however, bears a strong resemblance to that of the German Herbarius, of which I quote a part from Dr. Arber’s translation, made from the second (Augsburg) edition of 1485. They have been placed in parallel columns to show how closely the English preface follows that of the German Herbarius.

Preface to the Herbarius zu Teutsch.Preface to The Grete Herball.
“Many a time and oft have I contemplated
inwardly the wondrous
works of the creator of the universe:
how in the beginning He formed
the heavens and adorned them with
goodly shining stars, to which he
gave power and might to influence
everything under heaven. Also how
he afterwards formed the four elements:
fire, hot and dry—air, hot
and moist—water, cold and moist—earth,
dry and cold—and gave to
each a nature of its own; and how
after this the same Great Master of
Nature made and formed herbs of
many sorts and animals of all kinds
and last of all Man, the noblest of
all created things. Thereupon I
thought on the wondrous order which
the Creator gave these same creatures
of His, so that everything which
has its being under heaven receives
it from the stars and keeps it by
their help. I considered further how
that in everything which arises, grows,
lives or soars in the four elements
named, be it metal, stone, herb or
animal, the four natures of the elements,
heat, cold, moistness and
dryness, are mingled. It is also to
be noted that the four natures in
question are also mixed and blended
in the human body in a measure and
temperament suitable to the life and
nature of man; while man keeps
within this measure ... he is strong
and healthy, but as soon as he steps
or falls beyond ... which happens
when heat takes the upper hand and
strives to stifle cold or on the contrary
when cold begins to suppress
heat ... he falls of necessity into
sickness and draws nigh unto death.
... Of a truth I would as soon count
the leaves on the trees or the grains
of sand in the sea as the things
which are the causes of man’s sickness.
It is for this reason that so
many thousands and thousands of
perils and dangers beset man. He is
not fully sure of his health or his
life for one moment. While considering
these matters, I also remembered
how the Creator of Nature,
who has placed us amid such dangers
has mercifully provided us with a
remedy, that is with all kinds of
herbs, animals and other created
things.... By virtue of these herbs
and created things the sick man may
recover the temperament of the four
elements and the health of his body.
Since then man can have no greater
nor nobler treasure on earth than
bodily health, I came to the conclusion
that I could not perform any
more useful and holy work than to
compile a book in which could be
contained the virtue and nature of
many herbs and other created things,
together with their true colours and
for the help of all the world, and the
common good, therefore I caused
this praiseworthy work to be begun
by a Master learned in physic who,
at my request gathered into a book
the nature and virtue of many herbs
out of the acknowledged masters of
physic, Galen, Avicenna, Serapio,
Dioscorides, Pandectarius, Platearius
and others.”		 “Consyderynge the grete goodnesse
of almyghty God creatour of
heven and erthe, and al thynge
therin comprehended to whom be
eternall laude and prays etc. Consyderynge
the cours and nature of
the foure elementes and qualytees
where to ye nature of man is inclyned,
out of the whiche elementes issueth
dyvers qualytees infyrmytees and
dyseases in the corporate body of
man, but god of his goodnesse that
is creatour of all thynges hath
ordeyned for mankynd (whiche he
hath created to his own lykenesse)
for the grete and tender love, which
he hath unto hym, to whom all
thinges erthely he hath ordeyned to
be obeysant, for the sustentacyon
and helthe of his lovynge creature
mankynde whiche is onely made
egally of the foure elementes and
qualitees of the same, and when
any of these foure habounde or hath
more domynacyon, the one than the
other it constrayneth ye body of
man to grete infyrmytees or dyseases,
for the which ye eternall god hath
gyven of his haboundante Grace,
vertues in all maner of herbes to
cure and heale all maner of sekenesses
or infyrmytees to hym befallying
through the influent course
of the foure elementes beforesayd
and of the corrupcyons and ye
venymous ayres contrarye ye helthe
of man. Also of onholsam meates
or drynkes, or holsam meates or
drynkes taken ontemperatly whiche
be called surfetes that bryngeth a
man sone to grete dyseases or sekenesse,
whiche dyseases ben of nombre
and ompossoyble to be rehersed, and
fortune as well in vilages where as
nother surgeons nor phisicians be
dwellyng nygh by many a myle, as
it dooth in good townes where they
be redy at hande, wherefore brotherly
love compelleth me to wryte thrugh
ye gyftes of the holy ghost shewynge
and enformynge how man may be
holpen with grene herbes of the
gardyn and wedys of ye feldys as
well as by costly receptes of the
potycarys prepayred.”

The illustrations in the Grete Herball are poor, being merely inferior copies of those in the later editions of the Herbarius zu Teutsch.[55] In the majority of cases it is impossible to identify the plant from the figure, and the same figure is sometimes prefixed to different plants. But if the illustrations are poor and dull the frontispiece and the full-page woodcut of the printer’s mark are very much the reverse. The frontispiece is a charming woodcut of a man holding a spade in his right hand and gathering grapes, and a woman throwing flowers and herbs out of her apron into a basket. There are two figures in the lower corners, the one of a male and the other of a female mandrake. The woodcut of the printer’s mark at the end sheds an interesting ray of light on the Peter Treveris who issued the two first editions of this Herball.[56] The woodcut represents two wodows[57] (savages), a man and a woman, on either side of a tree, from which is suspended a shield with Peter Treveris’s initials. Ames supposes that Treveris was a native of Trèves and took his name from that city, but it is more likely that he was a member of the Cornish family of Treffry, which is sometimes spelt Treveris. A Sir John Treffry, who fought at Poitiers, took as supporters to his arms a wild man and woman, and one likes to find that one of his descendants perpetuated the memory of his gallant ancestor by adopting the same sign for his trade device.

The Grete Herball is alphabetically arranged, for the idea of the natural relationship of plants was unknown at that time. But we find a “classification” of fungi. “Fungi ben musherons. There be two maners of them, one maner is deadly and sleeth them that eateth of them and the other dooth not”! As in most sixteenth- and seventeenth-century herbals, there are quaint descriptions of a good many things besides herbs. The most gruesome of these is a substance briefly described as “mummy,” and the accompanying illustration is of a man digging beside a tomb. “Mummy,” one reads, “is a maner of spyces or confectyons that is founde in the sepulchres or tombes of dead bodyes that haue be confyct with spyces. And it is to wyte that in olde tyme men were wont to confyct the deed corpses and anoynte them with bawme and myre smellynge swete. And yet ye paynims about babylon kepe that custome for there is grete quantity of bawme. And this mummye is specially founde about the brayne and about the maronge in the rydge bone. For the blode by reason of the bawme draweth to the brayne and thereabout is chauffed. And lykewise is the brayne brent and parched and is the quantyte of mommye and so the blode is mroeued in the rydge of the backe. That mommye is to be chosen that is bryght blacke stynkynge and styffe. And that yt is whyt and draweth to a dymme colour and that is not stynkynge nor styffe, and that powdreth lightly is naught. It hath vertue to restrayne or staunche.”[58]

WOODCUT OF PETER TREVERIS’ SIGN OF THE “WODOWS” FROM THE “GRETE HERBALL” (1529)